?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(CIVIL RIGHTS.) Letter by Vivian Malone just after arriving at the University of Alabama, with a signed portrait on a postal cover. Autograph Letter Signed as "Vivian J. Malone" to Velma Skiniotes of New Lenox, IL. One page, 3½ x 6¼ inches, on a card, accompanied by its postmarked and illustrated envelope also signed by Malone; minimal wear. Tuscaloosa, AL, 20 June 1963
A remarkable and appealing artifact from the front lines of the university integration struggle. On 11 June 1963, Vivian Malone and James Hood arrived in Tuscaloosa, AL as the first Black students at the University of Alabama, supported by federal marshals who faced off against Governor Wallace and the Alabama state troopers. An enterprising Chicago-area stamp dealer took advantage of this national news story to send Malone two stamped envelopes illustrated with original portraits, asking her to sign and return one by the local mail. Malone's gracious response was dated just nine days after being greeted at the university by hostile state troopers:
"Dear Miss Skiniotes, these are very lovely pictures. I must say that they flatter me, but the one that this note is in captures more of my real features. Check cover of June 24 issue of Newsweek. This picture (envelope) looks very similar. Yours, Vivian J. Malone."
The accompanying envelope bears an accomplished and glamorous original ink-and-wash portrait of Malone, is addressed to Velma Skiniotes of New Lenox, IL, and is somehow postmarked from Tuscaloosa on 13 June 1963. At bottom is the typed caption "First Negro Women, University of Ala." next to Malone's signature.
With--the 24 June 1963 issue of Newsweek featuring the photograph of "Alabama's Vivian Malone" on the cover, which had been mentioned by Malone as a good comparison to the portrait. Also, small cropped wire photographs of Malone and classmate Jimmy Hood from 1963; and a 1972 wire photo of Malone at the dedication in her honor of the Afro American Cultural Center at the University of Alabama.
